


he'll see butterflies

by lunacrowne



Category: K-pop, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horror, Alternate Universe - Silent Hill Fusion, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Gore, Disturbing Themes, M/M, Monsters, Psychological Horror, Religious Conflict, Supernatural Elements, Thriller, Twisted love, Unhealthy Relationships, only loosely based on silent hill, warped I Need U era
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-04-22 12:31:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4835441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunacrowne/pseuds/lunacrowne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Like the rest of his friends, Yoongi wants to put the past behind him. When he returns to their hometown in Daegu on a whim, however, things don't seem quite the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Yoongi had promised himself years ago that he would never come back, not for anything.

But here he was, clutching the steering wheel tightly as he drives across the rickety mountain overpass leading into the town.

The town sat atop the mountain, sleepy and often obscured by fog after it rained. He hated it.

It had been, for its size, close-knit; everyone knew their neighbor and their neighbor's secrets. That meant for Yoongi it was stifling and suffocating, and just one of the reasons he had left. The city may have been impersonal, though rather than finding it cold it was a haven for him. But in the end the city did not want him nor the music he so passionately peddled for next to nothing, and now he was back--the shoddy failure that left to make a name for himself and came back with nothing but a tail between his legs.

There had always been the urge to return--a homesickness of sorts-- that waxed and waned for him. It was as if the town had this pull on him, constantly calling him to come back. And he had finally gave in after five years, all because of a dream from yesterday he doesn't even remember. He just remembers it was awash with the reds and oranges of flames and in the morning that was apparently enough to get him to toss his meager belongings into the car and drive like a possessed madman back into Daegu.

Despite everything, the town was still where he grew up, where they all grew up. 

When the road had reached the end, prompted by moss-covered signage Yoongi stops and observes the closed road ahead. There's a momentary confusion until he sees the beginnings of a pathway on the side. He recognizes the path as familiar, a hideout that was meant for rowdy boys that didn't know better. The remnants of a chain fencing off the path was broken and Yoongi receives it as an open invitation. Grabbing his bag and keys from the car he hooks his legs over the high cluster of roots and onto the mountain trail. From the point he stood he could oversee the rest of Daegu. Abandoned cable cars from the town's tourism days swing gently as he passes by the area, leading him to wonder just how much had changed in five years.

A mist sets in halfway through his trek. The further he walks up the path, the harder it is for Yoongi to see in front of him and he nearly stumbles from time to time. The tendrils of dense fog prod through the tears in his pale blue jeans, causing a shiver to crawl up the exposed skin. At the end of the trail is a clearing he gladly enters, ending up on the side of the main road of the town. He could see the fog was slowly blanketing the little buildings and storefronts he used to call home. Strangely, there was no one out and about, and no cars that should've been in the midst of a bustling morning marketplace.

He had been walking for some time, now stopping at a park. His limbs ached from walking around aimlessly. He did not encounter a single soul all this time, leaving him perturbed at the reason why when a voice calls out to him. 

"Yoongi hyung?"

Yoongi turns to see the shadow of a familiar figure emerging from the fog. 

"Yoongi hyung, it really is you," The boy that appears in front of him is the last person Yoongi had expected to see. Before he can act, sweater-clad arms and a petite frame are pressed tightly against him. "Thank god you're here,"

"Jiminnie?"

After all those years, Jimin had still retained his sweet features, gave off a warmth that emitted love. He looked the same, except under the affectionate gaze in his eyes there was a telltale darkness of fatigue and the cheeks Yoongi remembered as rounded and youthful when he smiled years ago were now the slightest bit sallow and gaunt. 

"Didn't you move to Busan?" Yoongi questions breathlessly, breaking away from the sudden embrace. Memories of tearful goodbyes and harsh words echoed in his thoughts briefly. "I didn't hear at all from you once you two left,"

"I did, but I came back, I came back and no one's here--"

"Wait, slow down," Yoongi stresses, holding onto Jimin's shoulders. "What's wrong Jimin?"

"Jungkookie, he's been missing for days and all he left behind was this note saying he came here," Jimin breathes, eyes glossy and near tears. "He's not answering his calls and I don't know what might've happened to him--"

Jimin's younger brother Jungkook meant the world to Jimin, and similarly was the result of his unease. Drugs, alcohol, stealing, and aggression--Jungkook infamously looked for trouble as much as Jimin wanted to stay out of it. No matter the circumstance, though, Jimin had always stood unwaveringly by his brother's side. Despite his easily bruising emotions, he was always resilient in taking up arms to care for the both of them, regardless of whether the other was aware of it or not. 

"Hey, hey--listen. We're gonna find Jungkook. The town's only so big."

"You think so?"

"Of course, worrywart. Aren't you the hyung?" Yoongi chides as Jimin's demeanor brightens slightly at his reassurance.

"He hasn't been talking to me lately," Jimin says quietly, hurt evident on his face. 

"You know the phases he's been going through. It's been a long time coming, with the way he'd used to get into fights. You've got to stop blaming yourself."

"The only one he ever listened to was Seokjin hyung, and..." Jimin chews on his lip abruptly in thought, glancing at Yoongi. "Do you think he might've went to look for Seokjin hyung?" 

They didn't speak of Seokjin hyung, hadn't for a long time, ever since his accident.

"Maybe, if he's...still there, you know," Yoongi murmurs.

"I hope we find Jungkookie soon," Is all Jimin brings himself to say. 

"I didn't hear from you at all after you two left," Yoongi adds in the attempt to change the subject. 

"It was hard supporting the two of us. It's been hard." Jimin replies, walking slowly beside Yoongi.

"If you were having trouble, you should have called me. I could have done _something_...for you and Jungkookie,"

"You were in the city pursuing your dream too. What could you possibly have done for us Yoongi hyung? "

"... _Something _. Anything."__

"Yoongi. You know you aren't required to feel any obligation towards me," Jimin interjects roughly before flushing at the fact he had omitted the honorifics. "I'm sorry, hyung." Yoongi didn't comment on the implications Jimin's words held. A thousand words he wanted to say but he didn't have the right to.

They walked in silence for a bit until it became too stifling for Jimin's nerves not to have a conversation.

"I didn't ask you this yet, but why did you come back, hyung?" Jimin asks after a long while.

 "Me? I..." Yoongi contemplates if he should tell Jimin an impulsive dream was his reason, if he even had a reason, when Jimin lets out a hiss of pain, doubling over.

Yoongi rushes to support Jimin, noticing now a long gash along the other's leg that tore through his jeans. The fabric was dark with droplets of blood, and he curses himself for not having noticed it earlier. It was of a nasty discoloration, but not infected, though Jimin moves away from Yoongi in an attempt to hide it.

"I wasn't looking hard enough when I climbed the trail up here--please don't worry about it, it's not that bad..."

"It looks pretty bad to me. Someone like you should've been more careful--" Yoongi kneels to examine the wound when Jimin flinches at his touch.

"Oh!"

The momentum of Jimin's jerk backwards sends him falling back into foliage, startling a butterfly that had been perched upon it. Yoongi watches it flutter away, red wings contrasting starkly with the smoky mist, before warily helping Jimin up.

Yoongi wonders what about him had made it necessary for Jimin to pull away, but he refrains from asking. "I think we should find some antiseptic for your leg before it gets infected or you hurt yourself more." he says instead.

"From the hospital?" Jimin asks skeptically, surveying the building 's looming stance at the top of the hillside.

"We can try over there first," Yoongi suggests to the closest storefront, a butcher's shop. Jimin looks at him skeptically, but follows him nevertheless. 

"If there's anyone in there..."

 "Hello," Yoongi calls out when he steps into the shop. The lights are on but like the outside, no one is here either.

"Huh...that's strange. There's no one here also?"

Yoongi steps behind the counter, eyeing the discoloration of the meat nestled in the deli glass casing and mind growing agitated at the missing presence of anyone in the town. Jimin trails behind him lightly, now limping from the pain.

Yoongi presses forward into the storeroom, almost retching at the strong smell of rotten meat. Racks of pig for bbq dishes hang in the back of the shop, in a late stage of infestation with flies and maggots swarming about. Something was not right, with evidence of the meat being spoiled for a long time.

"Ugh," Yoongi scrunches his face up in disgust, about to suggest elsewhere when the toll of a churchbell rings shrilly in the distance.

"The hell?"

Yoongi takes hold of Jimin's hand as the floor underneath them ripples, violently surging enough to knock them to the ground. He watches as the dull white tiling of the floor starts peeling away, liquefying to reveal layers of rust the color of blood. He continues to hold onto Jimin until the rumbling subsides, leaving the lights above them flickering. The windows outside have darkened considerably, plunging them into an unnatural redness, and Yoongi is left wondering if they had been walled in by an earthquake of some sort when he notices Jimin stilling beside him. 

"Hyung, what is that?"

Jimin whispers, visibly shaking as he stares ahead at the entrance. Yoongi follows Jimin's gaze, peering through the underside of the counter to see the source of Jimin's fright and whatever he was about to ask is caught in his throat.

Something, a red skinless _thing_ , was dragging itself lethargically across linoleum and knocking over tables and chairs in the small shop. Its limbs were covered in the various gore and guts, making a wet squelch each time it slid forward, sickening Yoongi. 

"Get down," Yoongi whispers back, pulling a stunned Jimin down by instinct. It was larger than the both of them, and he didn't want to imagine what it's intent could be. For now the creature was blocking their only exit and he had to think fast. The only way out was to keep going out through the back.

Yoongi motions for Jimin to move backwards, towards the back of the shop they came from. Jimin visibly tenses at the pressure on his leg from kneeling, but he follows quickly. The space in the back a few minutes ago had became a long corridor, maze-like with the racks of now rotting meat framing it, but Yoongi presses forward, holding his breath.

The smell is overpowering and Yoongi cautiously lets out shallow breaths to maneuver through the racks of meat, careful not to bump into them and make too much noise. Jimin's trying his hardest to catch up, though Yoongi notices the closer they get to the end of the corridor, the more he's falling behind. Yoongi is doubling back to Jimin, when Jimin's leg gives in and he slips on the bloody mass closest to him, rocking the racks with a loud clang.

Somewhere behind them, a guttural growl is heard, and Yoongi doesn't need to look back to know they had caught the thing's attention. 

"Shit. We've got to run," 

Yoongi slings one of Jimin's arms over his shoulder as a rapid squelching noise fills the corridor. They manage to hobble through an opening of what appears to be an extension of the meatlocker and Yoongi gives it all he's got to slam the heavy metal door shut, blood running cold at the glimpse of empty eye sockets just as he does so.

He slumps next to Jimin on the floor, wordless and out of his senses as they watch the door heave and prolonged thumps come from the other side. 


	2. Chapter 2

"It's cold,"

Yoongi diverts his attention away from the door he had barred with steel shelving to look at Jimin, who is shivering quietly on the floor next to him. It had been a while since there was last movement from behind the door, but for all Yoongi knew the thing could still be outside, waiting in the eerie silence it had left them in. He was never easily shaken up by things but he closes his eyes and all he can see burned behind his eyelids are the sockets of something that shouldn't exist. 

"Hey, stay with me, okay?" The cold air of the meat locker was starting to sting with each breath. There was no way they could spend the night here. Everyone in town was gone, and for all they knew, no one would come to their rescue. "Let me think for a bit. I'll get us out of here."

Where they are right now seems to be the extension of the rotten meat locker they had came through earlier while trying to escape the creature, except this extension is strangely clean and brightly lit. Yoongi had tried to break the window near the top of one of the walls for the past hour, but it stayed sealed shut no matter what he did, the gray sky outside taunting freedom.

"It-it's trying to freeze us out. Has to be." Jimin makes a movement to get up from the insulated padding on the floor Yoongi had so adamantly made him rest on. "I want to help. We can find a way out faster that way."

"We'll have to do something about your leg first," Yoongi murmurs, and Jimin's face falls in guilt.

During his thorough search of the area he had rifled through several jars containing concoctions for curing meats. He had found some bourbon whiskey, and if he ever did an aimless search on the internet right, he remembers it as a good makeshift antiseptic.

"At least we have this. " Yoongi tears off a long piece of his flannel to use as a tourniquet, ignoring the chill in favor of making sure Jimin was alright again. In truth, the last thing he wants to see is Jimin in pain, because someone like him sure doesn't deserve it. He pushes away the torn fabric of the other's jeans to expose the nasty gash, which at least looked like it stopped bleeding. He wouldn't be able to bear cauterizing the wound if it was.

"It's gonna sting like hell," he says apologetically to Jimin who bites his lip as he raises the whiskey. "Don't be scared,"

Jimin flinches this time too, but Yoongi holds his hand steady as he writhes against him from the pain, eyes squeezed shut. Yoongi quickly ties the piece of flannel tightly around Jimin's leg. It's a makeshift thing that won't last long, but for now it'd have to do.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Yoongi helps Jimin up to his feet, and finds himself relieved at how Jimin can put a little weight on that leg now.

"You're a lifesaver, hyung." Jimin smiles weakly, lips red and a little chapped and Yoongi remembers he needs to get them out of here and get Jimin some real help. 

There's an unbearably loud screeching sound above them that catches their attention, causing both of them to jump. A rusty metal blade falls to Yoongi's feet, barely missing him, and he trails his gaze upwards. 

"It's just the fan..."

The large fan not very far above them moves in abrupt jerks from the missing blade, until the whirring mechanism stops in its tracks. Yoongi uses some fallen shelving to boost himself up, and he sees that the gap created from the fallen piece had left a big enough space for them to crawl through. It was an air vent as far as he could tell.

"What can you see, hyung?" 

"We've got a way out. Let me help you up,"

  


"Yoongi hyung, I just don't...feel good about this place."

Yoongi had hoped they could see an exit on the other side after crawling through, but all he sees as he and Jimin emerge from the vent is a dank and dimly-lit tunnel seeming to go on for miles. 

"This isn't possible. There's no way this is part of the butcher's shop," 

Dark colored water runs down below them, and if the rusty grating was any indication, they were supposedly in the sewers, though luckily it only seemed to be water for now. As far as he could see the only way was forward.

"Do you think this will lead us out? To Jungkookie?" Jimin asks quietly, staring at the current below through the cracks in the flooring. 

"It will," he reassures, though he is unsure himself. The grating their on is barely wide enough for two to stand side by side, and they move single-file down the tunnel.

Blood-red graffiti is scrawled haphazardly along the walls, spelling out the same phrase: "HE SAW". The phrase is repeated in barely legible script, in varying sizes filling up the section of the brickwork. Things such as this spring up in the corners of the city all the time, but Yoongi finds it uncanny in this location, and wonders if it even means anything. The steady rhythm of his and Jimin's footsteps fall out of sync and Yoongi looks back at Jimin who has stopped in his tracks, fixated on the scrawls of red. Jimin is staring hard at the letters, rather strangely. 

"We don't have time, Jimin," Yoongi calls out to him, but Jimin remains rooted at the spot.

Yoongi doesn't understand the look he sees on Jimin's face, and tries tugging him along, only to have him snap out of his trance and recoil away from his touch again. 

"Jimin, is there something going on?" Yoongi only grips the ends of his jacket this time, treading his words carefully.

"I'm fine," Jimin mumbles distractedly , much to Yoongi's dismay.

"What were you looking at? The words?"

"I... just remembered something," Yoongi doesn't like how Jimin's eyes seem so distant as he says this.

"You haven't...been _here_ all the time. You've been acting strange."

"It's just my leg. Hyung, we should just go. Don't worry about me."

Jimin looks at Yoongi expectantly, and Yoongi doesn't press further. Despite his sympathetic nature towards others, Jimin's always had this stubborn pride, this stubborn pride that sometimes drove him crazy. They fall back into silence again, only their steps and the water underneath them audible. 

It's not until they've been walking quietly for a while that Yoongi starts noticing the lighting above taking on a gradually becoming more red in color, giving the dark sewer a relatively more eerie glow. It eventually casts everything in vermillion, like the graffiti they had seen earlier. A chill courses through his body and he turns to check on Jimin behind him.

"Jimin, stay close--"

The lighting hits Jimin's face, casting shadows with reddish hues across his cheekbones and for a moment Yoongi thinks he sees the shadows morph into angry red hand marks coursing over the skin down his neck. Surprised, he lets out a shuddering breath, but on the next blink he sees that there _are_ only shadows on Jimin's skin and nothing more. Jimin looks at him confusion, eyes widening with concern.

"...Just stay close, alright? Something feels off."

"I don't know!...Stop yelling at me I don't know..."

They both freeze in their tracks as they hear a faint voice coming from further up ahead. The voice is certainly human, but Yoongi still gives Jimin a cautious look, tightening his grip on the edge of Jimin's sweater. He takes cautious steps forward.

"N-no fire...it wasn't my f-fault..."

At a point up ahead they see a figure slumped against the concrete, blabbering incoherently to himself. The figure shows no response whatsoever to Yoongi and Jimin's approaching footsteps. Upon closer inspection a hood is pulled up around most of the figure's face, but the red light of the alley illuminates what Yoongi can make out as a familiar head of dark brown hair. 

"Jimin, it's Taehyung," Yoongi whispers in surprise, and Jimin immediately calls out to their friend, hobbling as fast as he can to the figure.

"Tae? Tae, can you hear me?" Jimin hesitantly reaches out to place a hand on Taehyung's shoulder and they see wild eyes, glazed over as if seeing something they couldn't.

"Please," Taehyung wails, shielding his face with what Yoongi notices are his bloodied hands . "Y-you can't...you can't take Hoseok...!

"Tae, what's wrong? Can you hear me? It's me, Jiminnie,"

"Tae, can you hear us?" Yoongi gives Taehyung a careful shake and only then do their voices seem to reach him, his eyes eventually clearing as he snaps out of his previous stupor.

"J-Jimin? Y-Yoongi h-hyung," Taehyung's breathing slower now and he gulps a few breathes of air, now no longer hyperventilating. He runs the back of his hand against his wet cheek, leaving a smudge of red that leaves Yoongi unsettled.

"Oh, Tae! What happened to you?" Jimin's concern only grows stronger upon seeing the blood. "Are you hurt?"

"No, no I'm not..." Taehyung's eyes gleam from his tears. "God, where am I? Have you two seen Hoseok?"

"Hoseok was with you?" Yoongi asks. As far as he could remember, Taehyung and Hoseok were inseparable back in the day, one always never too far from the other. The only exception to this rule was Jungkook, who would partake in their sordid affairs of enjoying alcohol and over-the-counter meds they scored here and there.

"Oh, he was having these dreams, everyday. He woke up screaming saying he saw this town on fire. I thought it was the new meds that were fucking him up, but even after he got clean the dreams wouldn't go away," Taehyung pauses."We didn't have the money but I got him to the shrink and they say he has this narcolepsy thing from trauma, I mean who wouldn't? This town fucked us both up. They suggested we come back. I was in the car with Hoseok, and I was with him but now he's gone and there's blood on my hands... _oh_ ,"

Yoongi whips out the bottle of whiskey they had acquired earlier. "Let's clean up your hands first,"

"It's not my blood," Taehyung says dully as he watches his hands come as clean as they could get. A few stubborn specks of blood are still caked to some spots.

"Hey, it doesn't mean that it's Hoseok's," Yoongi finishes pouring the solution over Taehyung's hands, the coppery smell releasing strongly into the air.

"I just hope it's not. I'd never hurt him--."

"Tae, calm down, of course you wouldn't, so don't say that,"

 "Don't worry, we'll find him once we get out of here first."

At Taehyung's touch, Jimin doesn't recoil, so Yoongi lets him support Jimin as they walk together down the seemingly endless tunnel. They speak to each other quietly behind him. At some point, they reach an intersection in the system, with two paths leading in different directions to the water below.

The sound of a bell in the similar tone as before reverberates off the walls of the tunnel and the bricks ripple, caving into one of the paths and baring holes in the solid grating from the impact.

"The other way, go the other way!"

The foundation of the walls is no longer stable, some parts toppling forward and Yoongi barely dodges a falling mass next to him. The grating underneath his feet ripple and change like at the butcher's, to his horror, and everything becomes claustrophobic at that moment. Yoongi hears Jimin yell something incoherent and turns to see Taehyung stumbling inevitably towards a newly formed hole in the grating. Jimin pushes Taehyung out of the way, and he's falling backwards into the gaping hole instead. The edge of Jimin's sleeve grazes past Yoongi's fingertips as he tries to catch him.

"Jimin!"

There's a shout and deafening clang before there's a splash of Jimin's body hitting the water below. Yoongi watches helplessly as Jimin gets carried away by the current, motionless due to having hit his head on the way down.

"Fuck, we have to follow him!"

Taehyung gives an urgent nod and they sprint forward to chase Jimin. Yoongi runs as fast as he can, eyes never leaving Jimin's form. It's only when the path ends at a wall while the water and Jimin flows out of sight below that Yoongi comes to his senses and exhaustion, hopelessness weighing down on his gut.

"Taehyung, it's a dead end--" he breathes, but he hears nothing behind him.

Yoongi turns around to see Taehyung no longer behind him as he was merely moments ago. 

"Taehyung!"

The path they had came from was one way, but Taehyung was nowhere to be seen. He'd lost Jimin and now he had lost track of Taehyung too. The world keeps changing and at this rate finding either of them would be slim if they weren't dead. The thought of something like the thing at the butcher's shop getting to them is even worse than picturing them dead. The thought makes Yoongi double over, nearly falling into another opening in the grating that must've opened up during the earthquake earlier.

"Fuck," Yoongi curses, pounding his fist at the grating.

" _Yoongi hyung,_ "

"Jimin? Where are you?" Yoongi frantically looks for the source of the sound, when he looks down and sees Jimin's visage in the dark water.

" _Yoongi hyung, aren't you going to save me_?"

"I will, hold on--" Yoongi hunches over the glossy water with a hand outstretched, watching it create a ripple across the surface.

" _Yoongi hyung, you worthless piece of shit,_ " 

The image of Jimin in the water fades away as he grasps at nothing but his own reflection now, tinted red. Confused, Yoongi watches himself in the water. His reflection doesn't mirror his confusion, face instead contorting into a silent scream, the orange of flames engulfing him until only charred black skin is left. Reflection Yoongi slumps forward and Yoongi sees flames licking the surface of the water now, wholly real. It's suddenly, unbearably, hot and he feels his own skin on fire. In a desperate attempt to escape the searing heat he loses his balance and falls forward into the water, disappearing underneath the surface.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i missed halloween ;; 
> 
> edit: I reread this and the most important part at the end was somehow deleted?;; but it's up now.


	3. Chapter 3

Mass was mandatory on Sundays.

Mass on Sundays, and Yoongi’s designated place was in the small arboretum next to the town church. He had made a little refuge out of it and he supposed, fortunately, they never went looking for him because they couldn't stand having familyless fuckups under their roof.

He liked to spend his time staring up at the filtered sky through the trees. There was something utterly rebellious about it, isolating himself while the town was wrapped up in their fanatical devotion. There was a sense of peace, as fleeting as it was, but it didn't matter. He would get out soon.

He had been in the process of enjoying his smoke, comfortably nestled within the serene foliage, when a familiar shadow casts itself over him.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the congregation?"

"I wanted to see you," Jimin's voice sounds softly, stepping aside so Yoongi could sit upright. Yoongi decides against being too irritable about it, when his eyes fall to the alarmingly red hand mark blooming along Jimin's cheek, and a few more peeking from underneath the collar of his Sunday shirt. “You're not mad, are you?”

"Who did this to you, Jimin?"

"They couldn't find Jungkookie, so..." he trails off, rubbing his skin in circular motions. "They'll let it slide. They say I'm a good boy for going to church so much."

Jimin says it so lightly, that Yoongi isn't sure if he's enraged silently over the fact that somebody dared to hurt the sweet boy, or the fact that he himself could do nothing about it at all.

"I'm more worried for Taehyung. They caught him with alcohol, you know. " Jimin absentmindedly scratches at his skin now, nails digging into his flesh. "...I should be getting back."

Yoongi catches the offending hands in his own before they draw blood. 

"You shouldn't," Yoongi clasps his own hands firmly onto Jimin's thin wrists.

"I should, for him."

"You believe in the stuff they spout?" Yoongi asks as nonchalantly as he can with his smoke dangling precariously between his lips, nodding in the direction of the church.

"It's stuff that'll save us," Jimin says in a weak protest. 

Yoongi's grip grows lax on Jimin's wrist. He scoffs. "That's what they've been telling you. You don't owe them anything. Jungkook doesn't owe them anything either." But Yoongi knows how much it means to Jimin, the mind-numbing words he knew all his life, but he doesn't press further.

"You don't understand. I _need_ to be forgiven." Jimin's gaze burns into Yoongi for a moment, a lilt in his tone as he hesitates in choosing his words, almost. "What I want isn't natural,"

"If you could help it," Is all Yoongi murmurs in reply when Jimin refuses to look at him.

"...I hate it here, Yoongi hyung." 

They're heavy words spilling from his lips, from pent up emotions finally making their way out to the surface.

"Namjoon and I, we've been saving up. Namjoon's got a car--and we'll have to wait and see about when but we're going to get out. To the city. Somewhere that's _not_ fucked up."

"That'd be something, wouldn't it? Whisking off into the city where nobody knows you," Jimin wonders aloud. "You'd take Jungkookie and I with you?"

"Everyone. We're going to take all of you."

"Even...Seokjin hyung?" Jimin asks carefully, fingers tightening on the lapels of Yoongi's jacket.

"Yeah. Jungkook loves him, doesn't he?" Yoongi doesn't need to ask. Jimin's silence says it all.

"Yoongi hyung, you know," Jimin says with a sad smile. "I wish I fell in love with you." 

Yoongi hadn't said anything to that. Just held onto soft hands, leading them out of the trees as the morning fog sets in.

_  
\- - -_

The lull of the church bells bring him out of his dreamlike haze. Yoongi opens his eyes to see fog clouding his vision. There's a disconnect at first in realizing his surroundings, but the chill finally sets in and he realizes he's lying on a riverbank, stones digging deep into the damp skin of his back.

"Jimin! Taehyung!"

The remembrance of what had happened at the sewers jolts him back into his senses. Shivering from his soaked jeans he shifts onto his hands and knees. The creek water ebbs at the edge of the embankment, and Yoongi recognizes this place. 

He was at the front of the town church.

As if on cue, the toll of the church bells sound again, closer to Yoongi this time. As he gets upright again, his boot snags on something caught in the crevices of slippery rock. It's the drenched piece of flannel that he had used for Jimin's tourniquet. Had he managed to hold onto Jimin before falling into the water himself? Yoongi couldn't remember. He looks on at the structure ahead, shoving the fabric into his pockets. When he hauls himself up out of the embankment, he can't help but notice soggy footprints in the dirt. 

The stalks of grass are so painfully overgrown, that Yoongi has to wade his lower body through them until he can get across to the church's entrance. The arboretum is gone. He forgot that it had gone down in the fire. 

Despite its unkempt exterior, the interior is as tidy as it would be for holding service when Yoongi steps in. It's empty too; he figures it would be just like the rest of the town. They all sometimes joked that any money made in the town went straight to the church. From what Yoongi remembered, they said the chapels were glorious. To him, he thinks the chapel looks disgusting, the excessively decorated interior bleeding greed.

Yoongi's footsteps echo in the corridor of the church. As he reaches the end, he comes across a hall of doors that break the monotony and a quiet, repetitive noise catches his attention. A low _drip drop, drip drop_ of water meeting linoleum. Yoongi looks up and around for the source of the noise. He finds droplets of water, curiously growing in size, leading up to a closed door before disappearing altogether. Water seems to seep through and down the door where the hinges are, traces rendering the knob wet.

A placard is stuck on the wooden door, reading:

**PRIVATE VIEWING FOR PARK JIMIN.**

**HE SAW. SEE HIM ALL FOR WHO HE REALLY IS.**

In smaller words, there's an extra notice tacked onto the placard: _How degrading. No family members will attend._

“The fuck is this?” Yoongi rattles the knob, but the door is locked. Yoongi pounds his fists on the varnished wood but it doesn’t give in the slightest. "Damn it,"

It wasn't possible for even a private viewing to exist. Jimin was alive and well. Someone was bullshitting him. A cruel joke.

He tries the adjacent doors to no avail either, all locked in one way or the other. There's a lone door at the end of the hall that Yoongi approaches without much expectation. It's unassuming, the only one with a placard like the door that had Jimin's name on it.

**PRIVATE VIEWING FOR S.**

The rest of the placard is unreadable, covered in black smudges. The door handle is covered in the same stuff, Yoongi pulling his fingers away to find sooty grime stuck to them. He wipes it away quickly on his jeans. The door holds no resistance, swinging open. The light from outside the stained glass windows illuminates the chapel and the lone casket resting in the center of it. Yoongi walks past the slightly dusty pews to this casket.

**HERE LIES.**

Whatever the rest of the name is, it's burned off just like the door. The casket is open, strangely inviting with its satin lining exposed, and its sides are charred black. A faint memory stirs upon seeing this, a fuzzy image engulfed in orange fire. Yoongi wonders what that might mean. After a few moments of pointless staring at the satin he turns to leave, though he notices that it's pitch black beyond the windows compared to when he had first entered the room. He makes his way quickly to the door that he left slightly ajar, but through the space Yoongi can see an abomination.

It's making its way towards the door, a bloated body balancing on deformed legs. The head, if he could even call it a head, has no face, just a gaping maw held grotesquely in a scowl. Its skin looks like it's been rubbed raw with the angry red it is. Just the way the creature shudders, twitches as its steel wrappings restrict it from moving freely, makes Yoongi feel ill.

But it's the bloody hands wielding sharp, heavy claws that snap Yoongi into action. Backing away from the door, Yoongi tries to find a place to hide. There's no coverage at all under the pews, and his eyes land back to one place. He hurriedly climbs into the casket, taking a deep breath as he quietly brings down the lid.

A low whine emits from ghastly lips, almost painfully as its footsteps echo through the chapel. Something scrapes against the flooring creating a godawful racket as it--he _knows_ it is--trails closer to where the casket lies. Yoongi feels trapped in the wood, some sort of innate claustrophobia coming to life in the back of his mind. At the same time the solid weight of the wood gives him some sense of ease. 

The shuffling comes to an abrupt halt. It's absolutely quiet, and Yoongi strains to hear. He waits for a long while, doesn't dare breathe. 

The silence becoming suffocating as the inside of the casket, he gently lifts the lid up, just enough to make out the outside. His blood runs cold at the sight of the red skin, the mouth. It's almost _staring_ at him, its head hunched over the casket motionlessly. It's unsettling the way it looks at him. Of course he had made a mistake.

He had never heard it leave.

With a mighty heave on its side Yoongi manages to knock the casket over onto the ground, spilling out of it unceremoniously and making a run for it. At that point it starts moving after him. The whines have a feverish pitch to them now, but Yoongi doesn't look back at the monster, just keeps on running down whatever hallway it is now, until he can cut a corner to lose the thing. Passing pillar by pillar he sees a good hiding place of curtains, ducking into the space quickly. It's surprisingly hollow behind the drapery and the crawlspace it provides.

He lies there in the dark until he hears the creature arrive. Yoongi coils up on the floor, ears straining to hear for any movement of the monster. His body is so tense that it might snap, hand over his mouth to quiet his breathing. Slick sounds disappear the other way, he makes sure for good this time. 

”Oh god…” Yoongi lets a breath finally slip past his heaving lips. "Fuck... _fuck_ ," 

He lets the silent sobs wrack his body, until he regains his composure. He was scared. It was definitely a shitty situation he got himself in, whatever term could be used to describe the town's state right now, but he knows it's not just him that's scared. Jimin must be so frightened. He has to remind himself of that, but...

If this kept up, he just might go insane.

Yoongi blindly grasps upward, thankful there's enough space for him to get to his feet. The crawlspace he entered led him into a small room of some sort. A little light filters through a latticed panel in the wall, acting as his guide. He feels the weight of the lighter in his pocket, but doesn't count on it to be functional after his little dip in the creek. There's not much in this room, only a small chair and a table. Hardly the essentials.

“Father, I have sinned."

Yoongi jumps at hearing a voice from the other side, ripping his gaze from the chair to the shadowy form behind the lattice. He backs away from the wall for fear of being exposed.

"As much as I'd like forgiveness, I...I don't need it..."

The shadow is distinctly human, but Yoongi is still wary. He listens on as the voice continues, rich and calming into the small enclosure.

"Rather, if I may ask, I’d like to talk to you of my troubles,”

Yoongi thinks he can pinpoint this voice, familiar, if not rather muffled.

“Namjoon?”

"Father? My name..."

"I'm not the Father." Yoongi tries, pressing against the lattice to get a better look. "It's Yoongi,"

"What the hell? Yoongi, what are you doing in there?"

"I'll tell you, once I get out of here."

"Figures it would be the confessional, of all places," Yoongi mutters when he's out, Namjoon helping him pry a loose panel off. He stares in awe at the taller man, before remembering his purpose. "Namjoon, what are you _doing_ here? This place is fucked up,"

"I'd ask you the same question," The other man says, confusion evident on his face. "Yeah, I think I know the church has always been fucked up but--"

"No, Namjoon! The...the _thing_. The monster. Haven't you seen it?"

"Yoongi? Man, you've got to slow down. What are you talking about?" Namjoon raises a brow.

" _Listen_ , Namjoon! There's creatures here; things that aren't human. The whole town's full of them. One was chasing me and I hid in the confessional until it passed me. It's not safe here--"

"I've been here for a while, Yoongi. If the thing you’re talking about passed through here, I would have saw it."

" That's not possible," Yoongi grits his teeth in frustration. "There's only one way it could've came from."

"Maybe it's been a long day for you, you know? Maybe some rest--"

"I'd know if I was fucking _insane_ , Namjoon!" Yoongi snaps. Namjoon takes a small step back at his outburst. He can imagine what he looks like to the other, what with his expression almost _fearful_ towards him. 

"Look, I just heard your voice. Thought you were the damn Father," Namjoon says carefully, eyeing Yoongi's disheveled state. He places a firm hand on Yoongi's shoulder. "Yoongi...are you alright?"

"No, Namjoon. I..." Yoongi rubs at his temple, a weariness settling in his body. "I'm not alright. Jimin and Taehyung are missing. Jungkook too. Hell, even Hoseok, if what Taehyung said was true. They all came back, Namjoon, and I--"

"Hey, _hey_ , you have to calm down alright? Yoongi, you're not... _insane_ man, I know you aren't. But if we're going to find them you have to keep a level head."

Yoongi bites back his frustration at Namjoon's worried expression. He braces himself against the wall, harsh lighting making his vision swim. "Sorry. I just don't know what's going on in this town anymore. Which part of the church are we in right now?"

"First floor, west of the entrance. Why?"

Yoongi thinks back. "The entrance...back at the corridor in the entrance I saw a sign. It said it was for Jimin's _private viewing_ , Namjoon,"

"Jimin? I didn't know he was..." Namjoon's face pales.

"He's _not_. He's alive. Fell into the water, but he's alive. I saw with my own eyes."

" Let's hope that's the case. The entrance isn't far from here. Let's go," 

Namjoon motions for Yoongi to follow him down the hall. There are little words exchanged between them, Yoongi keeping up with the man's strides next to him. Yoongi examines Namjoon's all-black attire and wide-brimmed hat with a slight curiosity. A thought emerges in his mind then, pressing him for an answer.

"Namjoon? Why did you come back here?" he asks. 

"Why would I come back here of all places, right? It's foggy as shit, but I've just been wandering up here..." Namjoon turns to him, letting out a laugh that's more than a little strained. "To be honest, lately I just had this...overbearing feeling, you know? Like I _had_ to come here otherwise..." he trails off, seeming to be perplexed at his own answer.

"You were brought here too..." Yoongi gnaws on his lip. Namjoon seems to have shared the inexplicable desire that he had. Was the town...summoning them, in a way? "And you saw nothing? Didn't hear the bell?"

"No. Just drove up here," Namjoon shakes his head, to Yoongi's disappointment. Yoongi waves it off and keeps walking.

"Hey, Yoongi." Namjoon toys with the wide brim of his hat. "I know before, I said some things to you..."

"Namjoon, you know it's not important."

"I just stood by. I knew what was going to happen, but I let it happen. That's guilt, right?" Namjoon continues "I don't know. I must've been able to do something then--so Seokjin hyung wouldn't have...

Yoongi whirls around, giving Namjoon a hard glare. " Don't say that. I was just as accountable as you, if that's what you mean."

Namjoon lowers his head. "I think I just wanted to see him, hoping he would be okay. Silly, right?"

At that moment the church bell tolls, punctuating his words.

"The thing still works." Namjoon remarks. It was coming from within the building. 

Yoongi feels the dread seep into his being, the eeriness prickling his skin. He looks out the windows and it's pitch black. "Namjoon, we should hurry."

By the time they get back to the entrance, the whole building seems to groan. It's happening again, Yoongi knows it, the floors beneath them taking on the color of rust. He breaks into a run for the door with Namjoon calling faintly behind him. The hallway is flooded with water, tinged red under the flickering lights. The door with Jimin's placard is open, leading to what Yoongi realizes, is a baptism bath, except it's waters are stained the color of blood. The water continues running at his feet as he approaches the edge. The small form of a person is submerged in the red water.

It was Jimin. He wasn't moving. Yoongi rushes to pull Jimin's head above water.

“Namjoon, help me get him!” Yoongi is frantic. Namjoon gapes at the scene, but is equally hurried as he grabs purchase on Jimin's bare legs.

The red-tinged droplets slosh at the foot of the rusty bath as they haul out Jimin's body over the edge of the tub.

"He's...it's not blood, is it?" Namjoon looks at Yoongi with wide eyes at Jimin's unmoving state. Yoongi seals his mouth hurriedly over Jimin's, desperately hoping for any responsiveness. With a rattling gasp Jimin's chest heaves, some water spilling out of his lips like the faintest trace of blood. He shivers but his eyelids flutter continuously, struggling in the attempt to remain conscious. 

Yoongi cradles his head in relief. "He's so cold....Namjoon, let's hurry." 

The door to the entrance is a beacon for them as they support Jimin's limp body out. Incoherent mumbling escapes from the young man they carry, face contorted in discomfort. Yoongi doesn't know if Namjoon notices the walls becoming progressively darker and more warped in appearance, just focuses on reaching the entrance. Sometime in their wallowing Yoongi hears the telltale scrape of metal on the floor, urging him on faster.

Yoongi makes sure they don't stop moving until they get well past halfway through the unkempt grass. He's exhausted and so is Namjoon, who says something but Yoongi doesn't manage to hear it all. His gaze is focused at the entrance of the church they've left behind, staring right at the previous creature he had encountered. It shudders, the steel talons twitching too, but it stays stock still, watching him. Watching them. It doesn't make a move to pursue, its eyeless gaze directed at the unconscious boy between them. 

Yoongi just urges Namjoon to keep moving, not before watching the thing's mouth that was held in a firm scowl earlier curve up faintly into a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I can sleep now ._.


	4. Chapter 4

Namjoon's car lies ahead of them, parked meters in front of the cemetery they had been trudging through. It's still the same piece of scrap metal as it ever was, when he had first scrounged up some cash for it and brought it in all fiercely affectionate for Yoongi to see. The road in front of it is cut off, giant hunks of asphalt jutting out of where the pavement was supposed to be. 

A whole chunk of ground, gone.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Namjoon murmurs in disbelief next to him. Yoongi swallows the lump in his throat, edging a foot forward to process what he and Namjoon were seeing.

All that's left is a deep fissure running along the tires of the SUV, the abrupt ledge saving the car from an imminent fall to below. The chasm extends so far down that Yoongi can't see where it ends, if there was even an end to it. The fog continues creeping downwards, making it seem as if there's smoke billowing up from deep inside the earth. He can't begin to fathom what might have caused it--an earthquake? Something bigger? Nothing seemed plausible in this town anymore.

"... It doesn't want us to leave." Yoongi breathes in realization. 

"What? That doesn't make any sense! There's only one way up here. It can't be just... _gone_ like this," Namjoon trails off in an attempt to rationalize the situation.

"Regardless of whether or not it makes any damn sense Namjoon, crossing that isn't an option now." Yoongi mutters irritably. It shouldn't come as a surprise, that things wouldn't miraculously become easy from here on out. Not with what they've seen. 

Warm, shaking breath on his neck grounds Yoongi back to the matter at hand. Jimin's still unconscious at his back, the small fingers clinging loosely around Yoongi's shoulders freezing to the touch. Yoongi turns to Namjoon. "He's freezing. Can we at least set him down first?" 

"Yeah. Right," Namjoon agrees, fumbling for his keys. The doors unlock with a satisfactory click. Clearing out the backseat he helps Yoongi lower Jimin carefully onto the worn upholstery, mentioning something about digging through the trunk for a spare set of clothes for Jimin, still soaked to the bone. 

The numbness in Yoongi's fingers, from both exposure to the fog and his previous dive in the river, persist though he tries to ignore it. Getting Jimin into dry clothes was the priority. He hesitates before starting to push up the edge of Jimin's sweater, drenched in the reddish liquid that reminds him uncannily of blood. The feeling of Jimin's body, _Jimin's skin_ , up-close against the tips of his fingers--it's a familiar thing Yoongi had once indulged in. However, he takes care in not having his touches linger longer than they should. He had never been welcome. 

Yoongi's eyes widen in alarm as he uncovers Jimin's bare torso. Many red markings, bruises, and scratches litter the exposed skin--the majority of the scarring seeming fresh. Was this what the other had been trying to hide? Like a twisted centerpiece there are letters carved into Jimin's chest, raised white to spell out:

LIAR.

"Christ, Jimin...Jimin wake up--" Yoongi tries shaking Jimin awake but all the other does is shiver feverishly in response. He cups his hand against Jimin's forehead and it's abnormally hot to the touch. 

"Shit, he's running a fever." Yoongi calls out as Namjoon rounds the corner with spare clothes. "He...he won't wake up,"

Namjoon immediately crouches down next to him, raking his eyes over Jimin. A sudden wave of irrational possessiveness floods through Yoongi, surprising him. He doesn't even understand where that sort of thought came from, shaking his head for even indulging in it as Namjoon's gaze trails to the old gash on Jimin's leg.

"That's one nasty cut...his wound looks infected. It must be what's causing his fever," Namjoon murmurs with a grimace. Yoongi doesn't miss how Namjoon's face pales as he does a doubletake on the painfully marred skin Jimin sports."Who _did_ this to him?" 

When Yoongi doesn't answer, "He needs help, Yoongi. We need to get him out of town."

 _Get him out of town._ The thoughts echo familiarly in Yoongi's head as Namjoon starts the car, but his mind's somehow drawing a blank. 

Namjoon reaches for the defroster, it making a godawful sound when he presses it. It takes a moment before it sputters into action, the condensation from inside clearing up.

"This thing's still as shitty as it used to be," Yoongi remarks as they pull out of the cemetery, headstones rolling by.

"Hey, it was a handsome getaway back then." Namjoon shrugs. "Hard times, you know."

"It didn't work out for you either, huh." Yoongi says. Namjoon had always been talking about the music he'd make once he left town. He was like Yoongi when it came to music--all or nothing.

"Nope. Still stuck at some gas station up in Ilsan. I didn't make it." Namjoon replies, his fingers lightly drumming on the steering wheel.

"You weren't the only one."

Namjoon grins slightly. "Looks like I wasn't. It was supposed to be the seven of us that did, right?"

"...Right."

"Honest to God, there isn't a day that goes by where I don't think of how it could've been. If that awful accident didn't happen and Seokjin hyung was still..." Yoongi can tell Namjoon's voice is wavering now. His fingers stop tapping on the wheel. "It's pointless to think about, I know. Lingering on the past does you no good."

His friend visibly stills, taking a moment to gather himself. Taking care to keep his emotions in check, typical Namjoon.

"Man, what _happened_ to us?"

A heavy sort of silence ensues after a while. Yoongi checks on Jimin's bundled up form in the back with the rearview mirror. Namjoon tinkers with the defroster again. The stubborn condensation won't go away. It coats the glass with the sort of sheen that makes him nauseous. It's getting harder to breathe for some odd reason.

"I can barely see anything in front of me with this damn fog," Namjoon grits. Outside the fog doesn't relent, engulfing the buildings that pass by them. Namjoon's right--they really can't see more than a few feet ahead of them with the fog obscuring the road.

Yoongi wants to ask Namjoon to roll down the window, do something to ease the pressure suddenly finding its way into his lungs, but before he can do so the fog breaks enough for them to see the creature they were running from looming in the middle of the road.

Namjoon veers too fast for the car to stay stable, causing the vehicle to swerve off the road and downward into the trees. The car doesn't make it very far, fortunately drifting to a stop at a large tree. Yoongi bursts into a coughing fit from the impact, pushing aside the deployed airbag. Namjoon lets out a small grunt next to him, working on unlatching his seatbelt. He frees himself from his own seatbelt, , desperate to see Jimin from the rearview. The young man is still secured in the back, although appearing shaken up from the ride. Rolling his head to the side in relief, Yoongi glances at the side view mirror. He can see _it_ in the distance, stalking through the trees like a predator. 

Namjoon sees it too. Yoongi scrambles out of the passenger side onto the grass, practically clawing open the backseat door for Jimin. 

"Hurry, we'll lose it in the fog!"

The adrenaline only gets the three of them so far--not far enough--with the creature still in close pursuit behind them. They catch their breath behind a sturdy tree. 

"Stubborn bastard," Yoongi manages under his breath. At this point Namjoon slackens his hold on Jimin's legs, brows furrowing in concentration.

"This isn't going to work," Namjoon claims. He looks at Yoongi with resolve. "We can't outrun it this way. Take Jimin to somewhere safe. I'll...I'll go distract it."

"No, that's...that's crazy Namjoon! You don't know what that thing _is_ ,"

"You said that you came from the other side of town, right?" Namjoon hisses as the crunching of trees behind them gets louder. "Go! Get Jimin out of here! I'll double back and meet with you guys at your car. " 

"Namjoon, I better see you there," Yoongi says gravely as Namjoon pushes the unconscious young man into his arms.

"I know this place like the back of my palm." Namjoon exhales before running out from behind the tree, yelling to get the thing's attention. Yoongi uses all his strength to throw Jimin over his shoulders and run.

Namjoon's voice continues on faintly as Yoongi makes it uphill. His arms ache painfully but he continues forward with Jimin onto the empty road, pressing through the nothingness of the fog. Yoongi's legs are screaming to give out on them both when he looks up to see the unmistakable shadow of the local hospital towering over him. The large building's presence is ominous but right now it's an offer of shelter in Yoongi's eyes. 

With the last of his strength Yoongi hauls Jimin onto the single bed in the lobby infirmary, locking the door after them and collapsing into a nearby chair from exhaustion. He rests his head against the edge of the bed and breathes in the strangely comforting sterile smell. They were safe for now, thanks to Namjoon. From his tilted vision he can see white coats hanging up on the leftmost wall, as if at any moment a doctor or nurse would come back to reclaim them for their shift. But the fine layer of soot lining their white exteriors and even the sheets he's resting on, prove otherwise. There hasn't been anyone here for some time. 

The medical cabinet next to the coats looks fully stocked. It's the first good sign Yoongi's seen in a while. The glass doors aren't locked, and he rummages through the different stocks of medicine. Thankfully the antibiotics are arranged by label. He picks out a vial of penicilin, hoping it can bring down Jimin's fever.

Dressed head to toe in the spare clothes from Namjoon, the swaths of black fabric practically engulf Jimin and make him look more fragile than ever. Yoongi's hand shakes a bit as he fills up the needle with the antibiotics. 

"Here goes..." Yoongi pushes down onto the needle and the liquid disappears inside Jimin's delicate veins.

Yoongi doesn't dare leave Jimin's side, until he's sure that his fever has gone down. The other's eyes are still squeezed shut, but his breathing is gradually beginning to even out instead of the shallow pants it has been. It's like falling into an old habit again, watching over Jimin's serene face as he sleeps. After all these years Yoongi's still failed to change it. 

"It didn't matter who you were. I shouldn't have left you then," Yoongi confesses to Jimin's closed eyes. 

"How did we end up this way?" Yoongi murmurs bitterly, smoothing out the loose strands of hair plastered onto the other's clammy forehead. "Jiminnie..."

Of course, Jimin doesn't answer.

Yoongi wants to get some water for Jimin. The sink next to the cabinet is of no avail, the faucets dry and groaning when he turns the knobs. The drops of a putrid, dark substance that does come out of the opening doesn't look all that appealing. The absence of running water wasn't a great prospect if they were going to hole up for some time in here.

"I'll be right back," Yoongi barricades the door with an abandoned gurney and silently prays to himself he can find water for Jimin promptly.

He steps out into the abandoned reception area, looking out through the sealed doors of the entrance. Outside the white fog has blanketed anything remotely visible. Yoongi has been to this hospital before, sometime in his childhood when he had a mild case of appendicitis. This place is different from how he remembered it.

ALL ELEVATORS REQUIRE KEYCARDS FOR ACCESS. 

Yoongi scoffs at the sign plastered near the elevator, finding it hard to imagine the inconvenience meant for patients. The stairs are a no-go , however, inaccessible due to the first half of the treads crumbling to the ground in disrepair. The elevator was the only option up.

He leans over the counter of the front desk and reaches into the drawer compartments in search for a keycard. He fishes out a piece of plastic stuck deep within the drawer, his arm accidentally knocking over something left on the counter. A bouquet of withered flowers falls onto the desk and dried-out petals scatter all over the paperwork on it. The contorted husks seemed like they used to be lilies.

Yoongi leaves them where are, browsing documents here and there hoping to find something else of interest. A leather-bound visitor's log listing the names of various visitors and patients lies across a stack of files. He nearly chucks it aside when a few lines into the sign-ins a name catches his eye.

 _Jeon Jungkook. Patient Kim Seokjin. ICU Floor 2._

Pages and pages going back months are filled up with this single line of information.

"Jungkook?"

Yoongi thumbs back to the front-most recent page of the visitor's log in confusion. It's without a doubt Jungkook's handwriting. A smudge of ink comes away onto his finger. He rubs his thumb and forefinger together experimentally, seeing that the ink is still fresh. It comes from the most recent entry. If Jungkook was in town, he was likely to have been here.

But the sole reason for his visits here didn't make sense. Seokjin wasn't here anymore. He couldn't be. So just _who_ was Jungkook visiting?

Yoongi palms the keycard in his hand and uses it to access the elevator. Throughout the duration of the ride an anxious feeling settles in the pit of his stomach. It doesn't let up when the elevator doors slide open to reveal a new corridor.

The lighting here is better than that of the previous floor. This floor is populated with wheelchairs and the occasional gurney lining the hallway. From what he understands its an area designated solely for inpatient rooms. Their small hospital tended to lump intensive care units and the other wards together depending on how they saw fit. 

He can't seem to entirely shake the eerie feeling of being watched.

There's no sign of anything remotely resembling a kitchen, but Yoongi decides it'd be worth taking a quick look at any of the rooms for meal trays containing what he sought. That plan quickly backfires, seeing as most of the rooms are locked. Some part of Yoongi tells him that this might be for the better, though a more stubborn part insists that he not abandon his objective.

Something makes a light crunching sound under Yoongi's foot. He hesitantly takes another step, only to hear the sound under his foot again. Taken aback, Yoongi stoops down to examine the floor. Pill after pill, a bunch of pills littered the ground. He follows the trail of scattered white leading into an open ward.

Light filters through the sole window, casting a low glow onto the two beds occupying the space. A figure sits on the edge of one of the unkempt beds. Like everything else in the room, he's clad in white from head to toe, cloth bindings dangling from his wrists. The man clutches a bottle of pills in his hand with a near-obsessive fervor. His head is hung low and he doesn't seem to acknowledge the addition of Yoongi's presence in the room, continuing to mutter quietly to himself. 

"If I close my eyes for good, it'll all go away. He'll go away, the fire will go away, _everything_ will go away..."

Yoongi's instincts tell him that he shouldn't be here. But the more he listens to the person's voice he realizes he recognizes it.

"...Hoseok?"

The man cocks his head to the side, squinting up at Yoongi with unfocused eyes. "Hyung? What are you doing here? Visiting hours are over,"

"I wasn't aware." Yoongi is taken aback by Hoseok's strange response, eyeing the orange plastic in the other's hand cautiously. "What are you planning on doing with _those_?"

"Oh, these? Just candy," Hoseok chuckles with a distant look in his eyes, giving the bottle in his hands a good shake. "I was supposed to share these with Taehyung, but he's gone and left me behind..." Hoseok adds sadly.

"It's a lotta 'em for one person. Figures I was scared to do this myself," Yoongi watches Hoseok unscrew the cap giddily, dumping an array of colorful capsules into the palm of his hand. "Or so I thought. Now that I look at it, it's not enough."

Yoongi remains unconvinced at the nature of the items in Hoseok's hand. "Hoseok, why don't you put those down? You need to get out of here. Taehyung's been looking for you,"

"He has?" Hoseok's eyes regain a little clarity, but he looks troubled. The circles under his eyes grow darker from frowning."I can't do that, I'm going to sleep soon. Don't lie to me like that, hyung."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Hoseok--"

“Do you know what happened to Seokjin hyung after he got sent to the ICU?” Hoseok asks all of a sudden, blatantly ignoring Yoongi's previous words.

“He was...he was pronounced dead from severe burns," Yoongi replies, confusion and distress starting to grate at his temples. "Hoseok, _why_ are we even talking about this? We need to get out of here--"

“No, that's not what happened," Hoseok shakes his head vigorously, gesticulating wildly into the air. " We only _believed_ that happened. But we visited an empty casket. He did get better, except after he was discharged to...”

"The sanitarium," he whispers, eyes darting around like someone would hear if he was a little louder.

“The sanitarium? He wasn't crazy.”

"We left him in there, hyung, and then that's how...it happened." The other's fingers curl around into a fist. "The fire. Everytime I close my eyes I see it still."

"Hoseok, you..." Yoongi reaches for Hoseok but the other moves away quicker.

"Yoongi hyung, I know you've been seeing it too. Well I've found a way to stop it." Hoseok swallows the pills dry."There's no point in sleeping if fire's all I'm going to see. I have to _really_ sleep,"

"What did you do, Hoseok? Please, snap out of it," 

"Shh." Hoseok clamps a hand over Yoongi's mouth, freezing for a moment as if to hear something.

"You need to leave now, hyung. _He'll_ be back soon." An unreadable expression graces Hoseok's face, nodding his head in self-affirmation. "Yes, he'll be back soon to watch me. I need to be sleeping--"

"Who's coming to watch you?"

"...Orderly..." Hoseok slurs, the bottle slipping from his hands and onto the tiled floor. It's empty.

"Hoseok, wake up!" Yoongi grabs Hoseok by the shoulders, but the other man slumps over.

"...He told me this...he told me...everything," Hoseok whispers with a smile, dragging his words. "I'm...a coward, hyung. Don't be one too,"

As soon as the words leave his lips, a drop of blood trickles from the corner of Hoseok's mouth. A vine-like ligament protrudes cleanly through Hoseok's chest. He watches in horror as the front of Hoseok's shirt stains red and his face slackens. From how the life drains from his eyes Yoongi knows there nothing he can do for his friend.

Yoongi barely has any time to breathe from how fast it happens. More of the vine-like things snake through the air to wrap around Hoseok's limp body, dragging him upwards. He doesn't know what's doing this to him. Yoongi glimpses the flickering form of a large shadow before he gets thrown across the room by something he can't see. The unseen force continues on to slam Yoongi out through the door and he crashes into the cluster of wheelchairs out in the hallway. Yoongi's ears ring from the force of the impact, but by the time he is able to stand on his weakened legs the door has already slammed shut in his face.

"No..." Yoongi hollers still though its of futile effort. "I won't let you take him!"

"Hoseok! Hoseok!" The door won't budge. He pounds his fists on the glazed door windows, praying to catch a glimpse of Hoseok through the sliver of glass. He gets nothing. Blood sprays up thickly against the glass.

"No...not again..." Yoongi pulls his hand away, falling back in sheer terror at the red streams beginning to course down on the other side. A single eye, stitched wide open, appears through the midst of the blood-- _Hoseok's_ blood--pressing up superimposed against the glass streaks. It's unblinking gaze towards Yoongi is accusatory. After a moment the repulsive eye disappears from view and it's still again.

Yoongi releases a choked cry, his trembling hands letting go of the handle. 

An echo starts off somewhere nearby. The sound captures Yoongi's already shaky attention. The previous echo gives rise to the sounds of sobs and screams of anguish, which seem to reverberate within the hospital walls themselves. The floor starts to shake now and Yoongi can see at the end of the hall, the pristine whiteness is already dissolving to that rusty red in patches. The wheelchairs caught in between become barbed things twisted into infernal shapes. He runs for the elevator. 

His footsteps pound against the changing tiles and he can't think of anything now. The elevator doors seem to take forever to close but they do just before the wave of red swallows him whole. Yoongi holds his breath as the elevator starts with a jolt and makes its ascent upwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a dream last night about this silent hill au and then WINGS just dropped the other day too and I'm speechless how bighit is going everything silent hill... I'm also shook that yoonmin's fire/water motif merged together bc complex yoonmin relations are confirmed but I'm just really tired emotionally from it all and maybe it shows in this chapter??
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> Thanks so much for the support on this story even though it took a long time in between.  
> If you happen to enjoy this horror story, I have another story in progress (castaways) that's a little more survival horror than psychological but feel free to check it out! Until next time. 
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> I swear, I love Hobi to bits but somehow in my fics he dies.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to try something new...so my first bts story in the midst of all the fics I'm juggling ;;
> 
> (for the purposes of this story everyone originates from Daegu.)


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